ÄOM-päivä/ Say no to buying day

"I bought it so that I would have something as nice as my friends' have"

"I bought it so I could relax"

"I bought it because I had a bad day"

"I bought it because it was on sale"

"I bought it because I didn't dare to say no"

"I bought it because I desired it"

Some sentences to make you think about today's theme.Today we celebrated the so called "do not buy anything day", which emphasized the meaning of being able to say no to meaningless buying. The organizer for this theme day was Luonto-liitto, the Finnish Nature Union. The idea was to make people think before buying. The current date was chosen since it's the last Friday in November which stands for high season concerning Christmas shopping. This is also the time when shops start with their so called agressive marketing and prolong their opening hours.

According to the Finnish Nature Union a lot of people forget to forthink about what they're buying due to the lack of time and big quantity of people in the shops. Crowds sometimes tend to make people buy without giving the purchase process itself any further consideration. The union would like the remind people on this day that 80% of the world consumation is done by only 20% of the world's population. There's something to think about.

I am a strong believer in recycling. I hate to throw things away so I have come up with a new rule for myself since I like to renew especially my wardrobe quite often. I am not allowed to buy anything new if I don't sell any of my old clothes. Once I've sold some of my old clothes, I am allowed to purchase something. This slows down my purchasing. I know I still tend to buy too spontaneously gifts for my friends and family members but I would like to think that I have put more thought in my Christmas presents this year than before. One example was my Christmas gift to my mother - I hired a cleaning company to offer her a thorough housecleaning as her Christmas gift. I wanted to pamper her but in a eco-friendly way.